jen and i headed into town today and finally visited shadow catchers – camera less photography at the V and A. it is really worth going to if you get the chance. it features the work of 5 contemporary artists who make images on photographic paper but not using a camera. they cast shadows, and chemically treat the paper and generally experiment. it’s really quite magical! there were also 5 short films – i often skip that part at an exhibition but found myself drawn in to watch all five. and they are all online here which is wonderful. i loved these quotes from the video with adam fuss which i meant to write down when i was there so was very happy to find them online

the dark room is the shadow place – that’s where you make discoveries where you are creative – it’s more in there than in the light…

…if you don’t create you die

some of the effects were easy to work out how they had captured the image like the one above by floris neusüss – briliant in its simplicity and shape…

but others were quite complex – this image by susan derges for example involved capturing a pattern with ink in water onto paper, printing it onto transparency, placing it under a container with water and ferns with photographic paper underneath that then exposed that paper. this was then photographed, stitched together and blown up to make a huge image. a lot of effort but quite stunning. she also captures images of rivers submerging photographic paper in rivers at night using the moon and flash to create exposures to amazing effect.

and some pieces i simply have no idea what happened to produce them but they were absolutely lovely like this piece above – the night cell by garry fabian miller

it’s on for another month